Shopping cart
Your cart empty!
A Fever in the Heartland
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"With narrative elan, Egan gives us a riveting saga of how a predatory con man became one of the most powerful people in 1920s America, Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, with a plan to rule the country—and how a grisly murder of a woman brought him down. Compelling and chillingly resonant with our own time." —Erik Larson, author of The Splendid and the Vile
“Riveting…Egan is a brilliant researcher and lucid writer.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
A historical thriller by the Pulitzer and National Book Award-winning author that tells the riveting story of the Klan's rise to power in the 1920s, the cunning con man who drove that rise, and the woman who stopped them.
The Roaring Twenties--the Jazz Age--has been characterized as a time of Gatsby frivolity. But it was also the height of the uniquely American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Their domain was not the old Confederacy, but the Heartland and the West. They hated Blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants in equal measure, and took radical steps to keep these people from the American promise. And the man who set in motion their takeover of great swaths of America was a charismatic charlatan named D.C. Stephenson.
Stephenson was a magnetic presence whose life story changed with every telling. Within two years of his arrival in Indiana, he’d become the Grand Dragon of the state and the architect of the strategy that brought the group out of the shadows – their message endorsed from the pulpits of local churches, spread at family picnics and town celebrations. Judges, prosecutors, ministers, governors and senators across the country all proudly proclaimed their membership. But at the peak of his influence, it was a seemingly powerless woman – Madge Oberholtzer – who would reveal his secret cruelties, and whose deathbed testimony finally brought the Klan to their knees.
A FEVER IN THE HEARTLAND marries a propulsive drama to a powerful and page-turning reckoning with one of the darkest threads in American history.
More Books from Timothy Egan
Reviews
Timothy Egan did his homework. Readers learn about the history of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana and surrounding states. We learn the name of DC Stephenson, an unscrupulous Klan leader who gained control of government and social institutions by spreading fear and hate. It’s worth the read.
By Sparkkler
Well written. This side of human nature must be revealed for what it is then and now.
By rugby4752
I live in Indiana. This was eye opening and at times shocking. I am so glad I read this and have been recommending it everyone.
By smackey0
A fascinating and illuminating history of the rise and fall of the Ku Klux Klan in America in the early twentieth century. The damage done by this hate group was widespread and insidious. The book is repetitive and boring thus the three stars.
By Joanabake
So many parallels to the race issues and hatred we have experienced in this country recently.
By Laurenl1016